Sunday, September 13, 2015

When You Discover It's Not About You___ HAPPY Becomes The Understatement Of The Year



On Wednesday, the Cowboy texted me and asked about bringing home ponies.

We wrote back and forth all afternoon and I was determined to put my foot down with a resounding NO!

I mean, after all, we already have 20 animals on our little farm. There is a possibility of us having a baby in the next few weeks, one who just might have to stay in the hospital for awhile. And oh ya, those other five kiddos we already have that need to be fed and clothed and schooled and....

It just seems like the absolute wrong time for ponies.

Oh, but my man...

He's persistant and he convinces me of all kinds of crazy things (how on earth did I end up on this farm in the first place????).

When he got home, he put his hands on my waist  in the kitchen and looked into me, "come on Kace, you know it'll be awesome."

Him. That smile. That voice. His touch. That's all it took.

"Okay, bring home the ponies."

I still wasn't thrilled about the idea.

Then on the way home from my appointment on Thursday I was talking with a friend about the ponies, and I don't remember exactly how she said it, but this is what I heard...

"Kace, maybe this time it's not about you? Maybe in this season the Lord is just trying to lavish His love on your little Hal? She has had a time of it with all the stuff going on with the baby and maybe He just wants to overwhelm her heart with joy by bringing her these ponies?"

Oh__my__goodness!

Why didn't I think of that???

Sometimes I get so wrapped up in what's comfortable for me that I can't even see what the Lord might be wanting to do for someone else.

My Hal has been asking for horses since she could talk. And that the Lord would lavish such extravagant kindness on her in the thick of this season of her learning to trust Him with her little sister in my belly, is beyond me.


{All afternoon, you could find her hugging a pony.}





There is this amazing couple that Joey does some work for throughout the year. They just might be the most generous people I have ever met. Seriously. And this weekend my Joey went out to their house in Nebraska to help them with some things. And they sent him home with 3 ponies, a trailer, and everything one could possibly need to care for ponies, and ALL as a gift to our family. I don't have words for the kindness of this couple towards our family. They have enabled us to do so many things with our kids over the years that  without their generosity we would not have been able to do. And we are grateful beyond measure.



{And if she wasn't hugging a pony, she would find her Papa or me and give us the biggest hug, saying THANK YOU over and over again. We kept telling her it wasn't us and that the Lord had provided through Co & Kevin and that these ponies were a total gift to all of us.}





We didn't tell the kids that Papa was bringing home ponies. So when he pulled in the farm gates Saturday afternoon and had a horse trailer attached to his truck___ you should have seen those kids faces. My Hal went back and forth between laughing, screaming, jumping, and crying. And me, the used-to-be-animal-hater, I wept. Tears streamed down my face as I saw the uncontainable joy fill all of my kids, but especially my Hal.

My friend was right__ Today, these ponies, they weren't about me.

I really do believe it's the Lord blessing my Hal's heart in a season of hardship as she learns to trust Him in ways she's never had to before.  And today... He brought her a joy soo deep by bringing those ponies to the farm!!

I just keep thinking about that verse in Ephesians, "His love was not cautious, but extravagant! He did not He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that."

{You can see all my kids personalities in this video. They are all STOKED in their own ways.}









Today felt like a very tangible touch of His extravagant love on the farm. He's reminding me that He cares for these kids hearts is ways that far exceed anything that I could ever think up or imagine.

He doesn't always bring us ponies when our hearts need a boost of joy, I know that. But today was a gift... an extravagant gift. And I'm so so so thankful.

Around the farm this weekend__
Happy has become the understatement of the year! :)